DuckDuckGo saw a significant spike in US app installs after Google unveiled a sweeping AI-focused search overhaul at its I/O conference.
By Chris Borden OpenAI’s first smart speaker is expected to cost between $200 and $300. According to The Information, the device will feature a camera and facial recognition for purchases, and will use video to analyze its surroundings to offer proactive suggestions, such as advising users to get enough sleep ahead of important meetings. A court filing by Vice President Peter Welinder indicates that deliveries are not expected to begin before February 2027.
By Alex Rowland With Gemini 3.1 Pro, Google aims to significantly strengthen the core intelligence of its model family. On a demanding reasoning benchmark, performance has more than doubled compared with its predecessor. That said, benchmarks are still just benchmarks.
By Chris Borden Accenture is monitoring individual AI tool logins and making them a promotion criterion. Those who fail to adapt may be forced to leave.
By Chris Borden The AI startup Perplexity has said it has stopped running advertising on its search platform because ads could undermine user trust. Perplexity was one of the first generative AI companies to test advertising in 2024, but began rolling it back toward the end of last year.
By Alex Rowland Apple is accelerating the development of three wearable AI devices, according to Bloomberg: smart glasses, a pendant-style device, and AirPods with a built-in camera. While these product categories have circulated as rumors for some time, new details have now emerged
By Chris Borden World Labs, the AI startup founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has raised $1 billion in a new funding round. Investors include Autodesk ($200 million), Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, and AMD, the company said in a blog post.
By Chris Borden Google is introducing an AI music generator called Lyria 3 to the Gemini app. The model can generate 30-second music tracks with vocals.
By Alex Rowland Anthropic has released an updated mid-tier AI model, Sonnet, with a primary focus on stronger coding performance, better instruction-following, and improved computer-use capabilities.
By Daniel Mercer Chinese company Unitree Robotics plans to sell up to 20,000 humanoid robots in 2026, compared with about 5,500 units a year earlier, CEO Wang Xingxing told the South China Morning Post.
ES 
EN